African Traditional Religion:
A Bahá'i View
First presented at the Irfan Colloquia Session #14
Bahá'í Centre: Manchester, England
July 4–6, 1997
(see list of papers from #14)
Many things African have largely been misunderstood by Westerners. African Traditional Religion
is one such thing that largely remains unappreciated, in this case not so much because the African
peoples are themselves not much understood, but because the pheniomenon of religion is not
appreciated, outside the Bahá'i world, as being progressive and time-dependent leading to the
relativity of religious truth.
Africans are a heterogenous group of peoples with widely differing languages, cultures and
models of worship. Early writers on Africa looked at these differences and described the modes of
worship as tribal religions, not seeing how these could fit into their scheme of understanding of
religions, described them as paganism, animism, ancestral worship, polytheism, etc. Modern
writers agree that these descriptions were largely wrong but how do they fit them into the
religions of the world? Christianity, as believed by Christians, has a simple answer: the African
worship is no religion or is a false religion. Islam will similarly not recognise it because no African
prophet is mentioned in the Qur'an. But how do the Bahá'is see this matter?
From the Bahá'i writings these points are clear: there are many prophets whose names we do not
know; every land has had its prophet at one time or the other; the knowledge of God by any
people is through the advent of a prophet of God there; religion changes its nature over time
through corruption, adulteration, etc. and every religion was suited to the people at the time of its
advent. It is, from the Bahá'i perspective, therefore not too difficult to see the legitimacy behind
the African modes of worship. If the African modes of worship are looked at very closely, there
are more similarities than differences -- which fact enables us to see these various modes of
worship as variants of one religion rather than different religions. This paper looks at these
differences and similarities. African Religion is also compared to traditional religions of other
peoples and a suggestion is made that the name "African Traditional Religion" is a misnomer.
The African Religion may be looked at in terms of its beliefs, practices and values. There the
beleifs which at best may be regarded now as superstitious. They may have served some purposes
in the past but will need to be looked at scientifically and modified as appropriate. Likewise some
practices and values which may not promote progress. In this paper the common ground between
the Bahá'i Faith and African Religion is explored and the differences reviewed. Where they differ,
areas of change to the African Religion to make it conform to the modern world view are
discussed. There are the values and practices which, by all standards, are admirable and need to be
encouraged. These are also discussed. If an African sees his or her traditional religion being in so
much conformity with the Bahá'i Faith, it should not be too difficult for him to accept the Bahá'i
Faith as a fulfilment of his expectation as an African worshipper.
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